How to Build Tension to Keep Readers Hooked

Your greatest challenge as a writer is to keep readers engaged.

Your job is to keep them with you page after page to find out what happens.

Inject tension into your work to enthrall readers.

What is Tension in Writing?

Tension is anything in your manuscript—fiction or nonfiction—that causes readers to anticipate. 

Anticipate what? Literally anything.

This tension doesn’t even have to be dramatic or eerie, though it certainly can be—and isn’t that fun? 

But tension can come in any form at all tha...